Pasta with roasted Romanesco and capers

More local growers are bringing Romanesco to the farmers market, and I can't resist buying the nearly architectural vegetables. They look like some part of a coral reef, with little miniature green castle turrets.

You can always substitute cauliflower in this flavorwise. It's just not as fun.

Pasta with roasted Romanesco and capers

Adapted from Bon Appetit, Oct. 2016

Ingredients

¼ cup sliced almonds

¼ cup plus 3 tablespoons olive oil, divided

2 tablespoons drained capers, divided

1 Romanesco or cauliflower head, cut into small florets

8 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

½ cup dry white wine

12 ounces pasta (shells or other short pasta varieties)

2 ounces grated Asiago, Pecorino or Parmesan

2 tablespoons butter

Instructions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Heat ¼ cup oil in a large saute pan. Add almonds and 1 tablespoon capers and cook over medium low heat until almonds are golden brown. With a slotted spoon, remove capers and almonds from pan and set aside. Season with salt.

Toss Romanesco with the flavored oil in the pan. Transfer to a rimmed baking sheet. Season with salt. Roast in the oven until golden and tender, about 20 to 25 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat remaining 3 tablespoons oil in the saute pan. Add garlic, red pepper flakes and remaining 1 tablespoon of capers. Cook briefly over medium heat until garlic is golden. Add wine and cook until liquid is almost absorbed.

Boil pasta in salted water until just barely al dente. Drain pasta into pot with the garlic, adding 1 cup pasta cooking water. Cook until pasta is al dente, add more cooking liquid as needed to make a sauce. Stir in cheese, add butter and toss to combine. 

Serve topped with cooked almonds and capers, drizzling with more olive oil for flavor.

Rating: Fine. It's like a lot of cauliflower pasta recipes I've made. But what's one more?

Creamy pasta with asparagus and smoked trout

We headed to Duluth for a few days of day drinking recently (aka sampling the town's plethora of breweries). That means we came home with lots of brewvenirs (Earth Rider's medal-winning coffee pale ale!), and tasty smoked things from Northern Waters Smokehaus. A fillet of smoked trout worked nicely in this fast, easy supper.

Creamy pasta with asparagus and smoked fish

Adapted from Better Homes & Gardens July 2019

Incredients

12 ounces bucatini or other sturdy pasta

8 ounces asparagus, tough ends snapped off and broken into 2-inch pieces

1 cup heavy cream

6- to 8-ounce fillet smoked fish

2 lemons, zested and juiced

Parmesan cheese, grated

Method

Heat pasta water to a boil in a large stock pot. Salt liberally. Add pasta and cook according to package directions. With about 5 minutes to go on the cooking time, add asparagus to pot.

Meanwhile, heat cream in a large saute pan. Add smoked fish, lemon zest and juice, and salt and pepper to taste.

When pasta is al dente, drain pasta and asparagus and add it to the cream mixture along with pasta cooking water as needed to make a sauce. Garnish with Parmesan cheese.

Rating: Super fast and tasty. But really, how can you go wrong with good smoked fish and memories of a really fun beer run?

Pickled bell peppers

Our farmers market got rained out Saturday, a big disappointment in a month where we're in full stock-up mode. But it did give me a rainy day in which to catch up on some of the produce we bought last weekend that needed attention. 

I turned to this recipe I first made several years ago. This time I just opted for the refrigerator method, but I've made it before with the full-blown canning method. The colors fade a bit if you heat the jars, but they last longer, so it's a trade-off.

Italian-style pickled peppers

Adapted from the Farmers’ Market Cookbook publication by Vegetarian Times. although I can't find it on their website to link to. It was one of those magazine stand publications that I've long since recycled. I'm not sure what makes these allegedly Italian style, so I'll take their word for it, not being remotely Italian except in terms of cuisine preferences. The only adaptation I did was to use pint jars instead of two quarter-size jars and I had to up the amount of brine ingredients (proportionately) to have enough liquid to cover all four pints.

Ingredients

3 pounds bell peppers, cored and sliced (a mix of colors makes it pretty)

1 large onion, halved and thinly sliced

4 bay leaves

4 sprigs fresh thyme

2½ cups distilled white vinegar

1¼ cup sugar

2½ tablespoons kosher salt

4 garlic cloves, peeled

1 teaspoon black peppercorns

Method

Sterilize four 1-pint jars and lids. If you're using the refrigerator method, just take the jars straight out of a hot dishwasher cycle so they're good and hot before you pour boiling liquid in.

Toss bell peppers with onions in a large bowl. Fill jars with peppers and onions. Tuck in a bay leaf and thyme sprig in each jar.

Bring vinegar, sugar, salt, garlic and peppercorns to a boil in a saucepan, stirring to dissolve sugar. Cook 1 minute.

Pour vinegar mixture over bell pepper mixture, leaving a ¼-inch headspace. (Try to get a garlic clove and some peppercorns in each jar.) Wipe off the jar’s rim before putting on lids to seal. Either let cool before refrigerating, or process in a boiling water bath.

For hot water bath method: In a large canning or stock pot, bring enough water to a boil to cover jars by at least 1 inch. Boil jars for 10 minutes. Carefully remove jars from pot with tongs and let cool before storing them. Make sure lids have “popped” and are actually sealed. If you have any doubts, store the jar in the refrigerator. Always label jars so you’ll know when you put them up and what recipe you used if you want to make them again.

Rating: These are wonderful on turkey or beef sandwiches, both for flavor and color. I've tossed them in with sauteed fresh bell peppers and red onions for a pasta sauce. Very versatile, and really quite simple, especially if you just use the refrigerator method. Late summer captured in a jar.

Zucchini gratin

Zucchini seem to be like rabbits: There's no such thing as just one. Well, unless you count that monster zucchini that some co-worker will bring in and put a sign by it that says "Free." It's clearly one that was hiding under a giant leaf and could be used to feed an army. It never seems to get any takers, but there's always at least one that shows up every year.

Naturally, the French have a solution for such excess. Here is Ina Garten's version.

Zucchini gratin

From “Barefoot in Paris,” by Ina Garten

Ingredients

6 tablespoons butter, plus extra for topping

3 large onions (I used a mix of red and yellow)

2 pounds zucchini, sliced ¼ inch thick

2 teaspoons kosher salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

2 tablespoons flour

1 cup hot milk

¾ cup grated Gruyere cheese

¾ cup fresh bread crumbs

Method

If baking immediately, preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Melt 6 tablespoons butter in a large deep skillet over low heat. Add onions and cook until tender but not browned, about 20 minutes. Add zucchini slices. Cover and cook for 10 minutes. Uncover and stir in salt, pepper and nutmeg. Cook uncovered for another 5 minutes. Stir in flour. Add hot milk and stir until mixture thickens and flour is cooked. Pour mixture into a baking dish. The recipe called for an 8-by-10 pan, which I didn’t own, but any casserole dish will do in this case.

Mix cheese and bread crumbs. Sprinkle over top of onion mixture in dish. Dot top with a bit of butter. (At this point you can cover the dish and refrigerate until ready to bake. Can be made a day ahead. Bring back to close to room temperature before proceeding.) Bake for 20 minutes, or until golden and bubbly.

Rating: Tasty. A repeatable use of an excess of zucchini. An easy make-ahead side dish. That said, I don’t know that I’d serve it to company because it lacks much in the way of texture despite the crumb topping. Those onions and zucchini have become very soft in that creamy, almost gooey sauce, and even with using a mix of onion and squash colors, it’s not very colorful. But it made a great comfort food side with chicken for supper.And I no longer have any uncooked zucchini in the house.

Breakfast of 4-H champions

When you start your morning at the Park & Ride at 7:43.

We spent the day at the State Fair, hanging out with Minnesotans when they are having the peak Minnesota experience, which strangely makes them act less Minnesotan.

They are much more likely to talk to strangers on the bus, in line or at a show. They become nearly Iowan in this regard, speaking as a reformed Iowan.

They also become more like Japanese in that they are obsessed with novelty while deeply rooted in tradition. Hence the longest lines for the newest foods, but everyone still has their must-have staples. So we got the Kentikky Chicken Sliders from Hot Indian Foods, the shrimp cheese fritters from Funky Grits, and our must-have fix of Danielson onion rings. (Just south of the Food Building; grab some to go with a flight from the Craft Beer Hall nearby.)

They also become more European, in that they get to wander around in public drinking beer, like a civilized nation. This probably contributes a slight amount to their increased loquaciousness, but they seem to start the day more chatty than usual.

Some 13,000 steps and three music acts later, we're sated again for another year. There's only so much fried food a person can take, however tasty.

Sorry, no picture of those sliders. Trying to eat them in the middle of a sudden downpour was not conducive to photography.

Roasted and pickled pepper dip, preserved lemon hummus

Sometimes life gives you lemons and you make preserved lemons. And then eventually you have just one left. Sometimes at the farmers market you succumb to the charm of cute little hot cherry peppers and make pickled peppers. And then eventually you have just one left.

It's this sort of thing that Marisa McClellan's book, "The Food in Jars Kitchen," addresses admirably. She's written previously about putting up food in jars. This book addresses what to do with that abundance. Sure, you can always put your jam on toast, your pickles on sandwiches and other obvious usages. But sometimes you've got so much on hand that you're looking for alternative uses. And sometimes you've got just one left.

Roasted red pepper, pepperoncini  and feta dip

Adapted from “The Food in Jars Kitchen” by Marisa McClellan.

Ingredients

1¼ cup drained roasted red peppers

1 cup drained oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes (reserve oil)

½ cup drained pepperoncini rings or other pickled hot peppers

2 garlic cloves, chopped

8 ounces crumbled feta

8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature

¾ cup olive oil, or a combo pack of the oil from the sun-dried tomatoes

1 cup fresh basil leaves

1 cup fresh parsley leaves

Method

In a food processor, combine red peppers, sun-dried tomatoes, pickled peppers and garlic. Process until well chopped. Add feta and cream cheese and process until smooth. With motor running, add oil in a stream. Add herbs and pulse until chopped.

Rating: Pretty tasty. Works as a dip for veggies or naan, or as a spread on hamburgers and such. I'd make it again when I've got those ingredients to use. (I used that one remaining pickled cherry tomato and part of a jar of pickled jalapenos I'd already opened.) Obviously the hotter the peppers you use, the hotter the dip. This combo was more like a pleasant background heat.

Makes a party-size amount, so if you’re just preparing it for the household, you might consider chopping the recipe in half. But it does keep fairly well.

Preserved lemon hummus

Adapted from “The Food in Jars Kitchen” by Marisa McClellan. If you don't have a preserved lemon, the author suggests substituting the zest and juice from 1 lemon and an additional ½ teaspoon of salt.

Ingredients

2 garlic cloves (or more)

¾ cup water

¾ cup tahini

1 preserved lemon, chopped

½ teaspoon sea salt

1 teaspoon ground cumin, or more to taste

2 cans chickpeas (or 4 cups fresh cooked), drained, with some liquid reserved

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice (optional)

Olive oil for drizzling

Method

Warm chickpeas in a pan or in a microwave safe dish until they’re heated through.

In a food processor, mince the garlic. Add water, tahini, preserved lemon, salt and cumin and process until smooth.

Add warmed chickpeas and process for 5 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning with lemon juice, more cumin and more salt as needed. Process until smooth. Serve drizzled with olive oil.

Rating: Possibly the creamiest hummus I’ve ever made. Warming the beans is a genius tip when you’re using canned chickpeas, which generally aren’t very tender. Flavorwise, even though I wound up doubling the amount of preserved lemon and cumin called for (and the recipe listed above reflects that doubling) and added more lemon juice, it was pretty subtle. Tasty, and very creamy, but if I make it again I’d opt to boost the flavor quotient even more. 

There are a lot more fun things to do with a preserved lemon, but at least now I don't have the monstrously big jar of brine with one remaining lemon clogging up precious frig space that could be taken up by quickles if I get around to it.